These artists performed at Festival 2018 – performers for 2019 will be announced around October 2018

Kate Miller-Heidke

Kate Miller-Heidke is an award-winning singer-songwriter who effortlessly traverses the worlds of contemporary pop, folk and opera.

She has released 4 albums in Australia, achieving multi-platinum status and appearing in the top 10 album and singles charts numerous times. Her album O Vertigo! debuted at number 4 on the Australian album charts, broke Australian crowdfunding records and was nominated for an ARIA award. Her previous albums include Nightflight, which reached number 2 on the ARIA chart, and Curiouser, which reached double platinum sales in Australia and spawned the multi-platinum hits ‘Last Day On Earth’ and ‘Caught In The Crowd’. In 2009 she became the first Australian to win the grand prize in the International Songwriting Competition for ‘Caught in the Crowd’.

Trained as a classical singer at the Queensland Conservatorium, Kate recently appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer. She has performed several roles for the English National Opera, and in Jerry Springer The Opera at the Sydney Opera House. Her debut opera as a composer, The Rabbits (based on the book by Shaun Tan and John Marsden), was commissioned by Opera Australia and premiered at the Perth Festival in February 2015, followed by sold out seasons in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It won 4 Helpmann Awards including Best Score and Best New Australian Work.

In 2015 Kate broke into national television, featuring in The Divorce, a four-part ABC mini-series. Both “The Rabbits” and “The Divorce” were nominated for Best Soundtrack/Cast Recording at the 2016 ARIA Awards.

Also nominated for an ARIA Award, in the very different category of Best Comedy Release, was Kate’s single, a Christmas-themed duet with The Beards, “I’m Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas”. All proceeds from the sale of the single went to Bowel Cancer Australia and the song has raised thousands to support the cause.

Now comes the ultimate reflection of her brilliant career, “The Best Of Kate Miller-Heidke ::Act One’, a collection of 37 songs in a 2 disc package, set for release on December 2. Fans will be thrilled with the album’s new song – feminist anthem in the making, ‘You’ve Underestimated Me, Dude’, and its electrifying video by visual artist Amy Gebhardt, both impacting media this Friday alongside the album pre-order

‘The Best of Kate Miller-Heidke ::Act One’ represents Kate’s albums O Vertigo!, Nightflight, Live At The Hi-Fi, Curiouser and Little Eve, along with a selection of rarities, covers and live versions – including previously unreleased material.

Disc One features 20 of Kate’s most beloved tracks, including the smash hit ‘The Last day on Earth’, the grand prize winnder of the 2009 International Songwriting Competition, ‘Caught In The Crowd’, the YouTube viral sensation ‘Are You Fucking Kidding Me?’, and the devastating ‘Where?’, from The Rabbits.

Disc Two features a selection of rare and unreleased tracks, including two fan favourites from Kate’s long out of print early EP Comikaze, the previously unreleased ‘Elysian Fields’ performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the lost track from Nightflight, ‘Southern Cross Tattoo’, with Ben Folds on piano, and a suite of recordings from the 2013 Heavenly Sounds live tour – fans who have long requested these tracks in a physical format have finally had their request fulfilled!